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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Communication is very important for human beings as they communicate in
order to share knowledge and experiences. In interacting with others, people use
language, which is ‘the system of communication in speech and writing that is
used by people of a particular country or the use by humans of a system of sounds
and words to communicate.’ (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 721)
In a multi-cultural community, such as Indonesia, we often hear people
talking using their vernacular languages. The way people talk and their preference
of language are controlled by the social context. One can convey the same
message to several different people in several different ways. It all depends on the
social factors, such as the user of the language, the setting, the social distance, and
the topic. (Holmes 23)
In a conversation, when an obvious change of social factors occur (for
instance the arrival of someone new), it is common to see people switch their
language. This is called code switching (Holmes 35) Code switching
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exists among people who are able to speak more than one language. Those people
often switch from one language to another to convey their ideas and hence, code
switching is accepted as a normal phenomenon. The idea is supported by Milroy
and Muysken (7), who state that code switching is the alternative use of language
done by bilinguals in the same conversation.
This code switching phenomenon appears in various contexts. For
instance, in a language classroom where teachers or lecturers often switch their
language (English-Indonesia) to deliver the information to the student (Olcay), in
a conversation among friends who are able to speak more than one language, and
many others.
Code switching occurs not only in conversations but also in written forms
such as letters, newspapers, magazines, and literary books. The writers tend to
switch from one language to another. They insert or borrow words or sentences
from another language.
In this thesis, I choose to analyze the functions of code switching used in
Family Planning in Rural West Java. The Serpong Project. This book presents the
findings of a study project which investigated public health, demography and
family planning in rural West Java. This is a project done by two universities from
two different countries, the University of Indonesia and Leiden University of the
Netherlands. In this book I find a lot of the use of code switching from the English
language into Indonesian. The main language of the book is English and yet, there
are certain words written in Indonesian. Therefore, I would like to find out why
the writers choose to use the Indonesian language instead of keeping the English
language.
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The writers of this book are members of the Serpong team consisting of
sociologists, medical doctors (from Indonesia and the Netherlands), and also
cultural anthropologists. Besides, the target audience of this book is not only
people of Indonesia and the Netherlands, but also people elsewhere who are aware
that multi-disciplinary research and evaluation constitute vital conditions for the
adequate functioning of the health care system.
The book consists of nine chapters and in this discussion I only choose
Chapter Three until Chapter Eight because in those chapters the writers write the
report of the field research and therefore, I can get a lot of data of the use of code
switching in those chapters. Chapters One, Two, and Nine are the introduction
and conclusion of the report and the writers do not use a lot of code switching.
Therefore, I do not analyze those chapters.
There is one linguistic area that is used in the discussion. It is
Sociolinguistics, the study of the relationship between language and society
(Holmes 1), which is closely related to the topic that is discussed in the thesis
based on some theories of the functions of code switching. According to Koziol
(29-38), there are fourteen functions of code switching, such as personalization,
reiteration, designations (endearment and name calling), substitution (appositive),
emphasis, clarification, objectivization, untranslatability, mitigating message,
parenthesis, aggravating message, quotation, and topic shift.
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Statement of the Problem
The problems that will be analyzed in this study are:
1. Which utterances in this book contain code switching?
2. What is the function of code switching in this book?
3. What is the purpose of using those functions?
Purpose of the Study
With reference to the above research problems, this study aims:
1. To find out the utterances which contain code switching in this book.
2. To know the function of code switching in this book.
3. To know the purpose of using those functions.
Method of Research
The method of research used in this thesis follows this procedure. Initially,
I read the book entitled Family Planning in Rural West Java. The Serpong Project,
which provides me with the data needed for the analysis. After I have found the
data, I classify them into the functions of code switching. Then, I analyze the data
by using some theories from textbooks and electronic websites. Finally, I write a
research report.
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Organization of the Thesis
This thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter I is the Introduction, which
contains the Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the
Study, Method of Research, and Organization of the Thesis. In Chapter II, the
theoretical framework of the study is presented. The data analysis and the
discussion are presented in Chapter III. The following chapter, Chapter IV, is the
conclusion, in which I conclude what has been analyzed and discussed in the
previous chapter. The thesis ends with the Bibliography and the Appendix.
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